National Lottery could be bought by overseas lottery operator

The company that operates the UK National Lottery is to auction 80% of the business next month as four of the National Lottery’s five shareholders have decided to cash in their shares. This leaves a great deal of uncertainty as to who will eventually own the National Lottery, with the possibility that the National Lottery could be bought by an overseas lottery operator.

Four of Camelot’s five shareholders have decided that now is the right time to cash in their National Lottery shares. These shareholders include chocolate maker Cadbury and banknote printer De La Rue. Each of the four shareholders owns a 20% stake in the National Lottery with each individual shareholder’s stake being worth about £80 million.

There are a couple of reasons to why these National Lottery shareholders may want to cash in their investment. One of these may simply be that their National Lottery shares are simply not core to their main businesses any longer. The other reason may well be that there are over nine years remaining of the operating licence and that could be worth a lot to any possible buyer. Any potential buyer of shares in the National Lottery would have to be approved by Camelot’s regulator, the National Lottery Commission, to ensure its suitability to run the UK state lottery.

Founder of Virgin, Sir Richard Branson has had two unsuccessful bids for the UK National Lottery operating license and is rumoured to be interested in acquiring the shares when they are put up for auction next month. There are a number of other possible buyers rumoured to be interested in buying a share of the National Lottery too, including lottery operators from overseas.

So there are some big changes happening behind the scenes at Lottery HQ and we here at Online Lotto will keep you up-to-date with all of the very latest National Lottery news developments as they happen. Don’t worry, you’ll still be able to buy tickets with a chance of winning a huge multi-million pound jackpot, and remember you can buy tickets for the National Lottery and many other lotteries around the world right here at Online Lotto.